Bush says Congress must vote on Colombia pact

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he intended to send a controversial free trade pact with Colombia to Congress soon for a vote and warned rejecting the pact would harm U.S. national security.

That triggered a warning from congressional leaders that the agreement could be rejected if the White House tries to "bully" Congress into voting on the pact.

Bush said approval of the pact was essential to support a key ally in Latin America facing threats from the FARC guerrilla group at home and from neighboring Venezuela, led by leftist President Hugo Chavez.

"As we speak, Colombia is under assault from a terrorist network known as the FARC, which aims to overthrow Colombia's democracy and aims to impose a Marxist vision on the country," Bush told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"Members of the Congress must be ready to move forward with the agreement when they return from the Easter recess," he said in the speech also attended by senior members of Bush's economic and national security team. "And they need to get the job done and get a bill to my desk."

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters she expected Bush to send the agreement to Congress "very shortly" after lawmakers return on Mar 31 to ensure they vote on the pact by the end of the year.

In a statement, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Bush risked seeing the agreement defeated if he did not follow established procedures for submitting the agreement to Congress for a vote.

"Any deviation from this normal procedure for the Colombia FTA could prove to be counterproductive and would work against both countries' long-term interests," Pelosi said.

"An attempt by President Bush to try to bully Congress would just add to the problems facing that FTA, and could have profound repercussions for the next president's trade agenda," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

ENOUGH TIME FOR A VOTE?

Bush administration officials said they have worked for over a year to satisfy concerns Democrats have raised about the pact, but remain ready to work in a bipartisan fashion to bring the agreement to the floor.

But they also are concerned Congress could run out the clock on the pact and adjourn before taking a vote if Bush waits too long to submit the agreement.

The Colombia agreement is covered by trade promotion authority which requires Congress to approve or reject trade deals within 90 legislative days. Congress' current target adjournment date is September 22 and lawmakers will be gone for most of August on an annual break.

Colombia triggered a regional crisis this month by sending troops into neighboring Ecuador on a raid that killed a senior FARC commander.

Chavez, who leads a growing anti-U.S. bloc in Latin America and accuses Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of being a pawn of Washington, responded by ordering his troops to the Colombian border.

"This is the latest step in a disturbing pattern of provocative behavior by the regime in Caracas," Bush said. "It has squandered its own oil wealth in an effort to promote its hostile anti-American vision."

Bush also sees Uribe as a key ally in the war against drug trafficking, and has sent billions of dollars in mainly military aid to Colombia to help it fight the FARC and drug cartels.

The Bush administration has been pressing Congress for a vote on the Colombia agreement as well as two other trade pacts with Panama and South Korea for over a year.

The AFL-CIO labor federation strongly opposes the pact with Colombia, which it has called the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists.

Pelosi and other senior Democrats have insisted Colombia make more progress on reducing violence against trade unionists and bringing murderers to justice before the Democratic-controlled Congress votes on the trade pact.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)